So many possums...so few possum recipes
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A possum here, a possum there, possums everywhere
Comments (153)Terryr, why are you saying it? Obviously, you don't know anything about opossums. I'm sure they were dead. There is no way an opossum will "play dead" for 24 hours. A 6" baby wouldn't even know how to play dead. They don't know who or what to be afraid of. I have seen many adult opossums playing dead after they had been confronted by my dog. They will come back to life within hour and even in the presence of a human (but not a dog!!!) . Chilled babies can look dead, but you can bring them back to life if you place them in warm water,with the head up (if it's not to late and they are still alive). After 24 hours the body will become "stiff" and a little hard if it's dead. If it's soft and floppy, it could be alive. Also, a dead animal will be cold to the touch. Less than a 7" baby should be with it's mother. Without the mother they will die quickly from dehydration and from exposure (even in warm weather - they can't control there body heat at this point.) Mother-opossum's will not return for lost babies, even if she is alive. So leaving 6" babies where they were would not be a good idea. Please, check the link bellow....See MoreSo many Pit Bulls up for adoption...so very sad
Comments (26)My sister has been a dog trainer for 35 years. She teaches both individuals as well as groups. She has experience with all types of dog breeds. She uses positive reinforcement along with clicker training. The one breed that she doesn't trust is a pit bull. While not all pit bulls cause danger, many pitbulls that she has had in a group training class have had to be removed from the training and asked to not come back. She said all of the owners of the pit bulls swear that their dog was raised around the children, wouldn't hurt a fly, is a very loving dog, etc., etc., etc. She has had many pit bulls, unprovoked, attack other dogs in class. She has seen a few pit bulls turn on their owners, again, unprovoked. The thing about a pit bull is their jaw strength. A pit bull has 2200 lbs of pressure in their jaws, and can crush bone. A human has about 10 lbs of pressure in their hands. Once a pit bull attacks, even if the dogs want to release, the formation of their jaw inhibits the ability to release. Often times pit bulls, when attacking someone, need to be shot in order to release the victim. Everyone says their pit bull is the best, kindest, most loving dog. The thing about a pit bull can be their unpredictable behavior. If you do a Google search on pit bull attacks, there are hundreds of articles. And I personally have been charged by a pit bull. Fortunately the owner was near and was able to call the dog back. I wouldn't go near a pit bull....See MoreUpdate #7 Nine baby possums escaped
Comments (23)Thank you, sjerin and everyone who has said such nice things. About the yogurt. It is in one of the Bayou Tales...I will eventually post it here...but one of the first possums I got had metabolic bone disorder. I called a possum expert in California and consulted with her on what to do. She told me to mix a portion of all kinds of chopped vegetables with a portion of Purina Cat Chow....had to be that brand...stir it together with enough yogurt to moisten it. I hand fed the possum for weeks and she never got any better and eventually died. I found out though that all possums love yogurt...most animals do. And I started giving them all some, since it is a good source of calcium and they have high calcium requirements. The possum...well "opossum yahoo group" wouldn't let me join, but I became good friends with one of their members. If any of you ever received one of my possum Christmas cards, she designed them. She truly loved her possums...had just one at a time, but one was quite elderly....they have short life spans...at 4 yrs. old and she even took it to an acupuncturist to relieve her arthritic pains. Anyway, she was telling me about a possum she was helping rehab and they couldn't get him to take the medicine they had for him. Their method was to take one of those little Baskin Robbins Ice Cream sample spoons and try to give him the medicine from that. I told her....that's not going to work. Under the best of circumstances, possums will gape their mouths open. It is a common behavior...even tame possums will do it....it is a response to show their teeth and growl, feign they are ferocious...if that doesn't work and they can't escape, they may play dead, or even bite you. Anyway, the way to give possums medicine, you mix it in a little yogurt. They eat every bit of it. (So see, I could have taught the experts something.) :-)) I like giving it to little possums because it is very filling and even fattening. They are much less likely to chew on each other if they are full and sleepy. I have never had a possum develop metabolic bone disorder, out of the hundreds that I have raised. Meanwhile, back at the possum yahoo group, the original possum expert...the one who taught the one that I had the phone conference with...a vet in Orange County, California, who spent 17 years studying possums, died. The possums group was beside themselves because Purina changed the regular cat chow recipe in some way, and now they were afraid to use it any more. Some of them decided not to ever feed meat based foods to their possums ever again. It made me so glad that I wasn't a member of the group. I am sure I would have made many enemies because don't tell me that an animal with 50 razor sharp, triangular teeth should not eat meat. People who can't figure out simple things like that....get on my nerves. So I am not a member of their group but I am going along without them. ;) No. I don't get any vacations. In a way I don't mind because I have traveled quite a bit...but there are a few places I'd love to go again...mostly east of the Mississippi. If my husband is home, I can go like to the iris convention for Louisiana irises in Lafayette, La. It is just three days. I haven't been in awhile but would like to go next year to see my old friends. I really don't mind staying home....I love it here. I have a million things to do...I don't ever get bored. Sometimes I get sleepy though. We do plan to do some work on the place, as soon as my husband can get back to work. If I was better set up to take care of all the animals...chickens, horses, possums, pigs...it would be a lot easier. My husband was very sick with a UTI about two weeks ago. I didn't sleep well because every time he woke up, I woke up, and he was so very sick and it was so stressful, and I felt so run down when he finally did get well. I am just now getting my strength back. I felt so wrung out. But I am much better now. I am glad you enjoy hearing about the animals. I don't think my rehab group likes us talking about them because it is their fear that someone will think they make good pets, but I always tell people, they aren't good pets, but I think by writing about them, it helps some people to understand them a little better....See Morea few bread baking tips and the pizza dough recipe
Comments (33)I've been reading these and all of trailrunner's post. They are just great. All the hints were great. I bake bread out of boredom, I rarely use a recipe, for better or worse and like the wet doughs as well as quicker higher yeast doughs for pizza. Someday I'll get that "super peel" with the cloth belt thingy. I am forced to pre-cook my thin pizza crusts without one- My favorite bread is an olive bread that is made locally in the East Bay and sold now only at the local Berkeley farmer's market- you can go to their bakery, and they will sell stuff to you, but it's not a store front, no sales help, no hours- if they are there they'll sell it to you- they're also fresh pasta makers- 'Phoenix Pastificio'- if you're ever in the area. I've never tried to make that bread, it's almost Holy to me...( although I know he uses a biga and those black Kalamata olives). It has a thin almost black burnt crust, with large ciabatta holes to the crumb and flavor to die for....See Moremarilyn_c
7 years agomarilyn_c
7 years ago
Raven, I have seen possums with horrific wounds heal right up, and I have seen perfectly healthy looking ones drop dead over night. They are strange creatures. They grow their entire lives...which are very short....good, I suppose. ;) Then if they continue to grow...like if they are kept as pets, they almost always die from congestive heart failure. I have never kept one as a pet, although I have been tempted because some of them are incredibly sweet. I had one named Praline, and she was so sweet and cuddly. They are very primitive animals and they don't usually do well as pets. If you pet them, they think you are a predator....so they really don't enjoy it. There are groups on FB for people with pet possums and they love them to the point that almost defies description but those possums are handled every day so they are more tolerant of being a pet. The ones I raise don't get handled....partly because I don't have the time and I am not trying to make them pets...and they will bite the dickens out of me every chance they get. Now a totally wild possum, will almost never bite unless it has been stressed out or is injured. They show defensive behaviors, like opening their mouths and hissing but they won't bite. I can scoop them up like a house cat, just by putting my hand under their belly. I never pick them up by their tail...like most people...even rehabbers...do. The second possum I ever raised....before I got into it on such a large scale....was a tiny baby and she slept with me, in the sleeve of my nightgown. I am a very light sleeper, so I didn't roll over on her. They don't potty on you, because as a pouch animal, the pouch must be kept clean, and so the mother possum controls when they have to potty. She stayed with me for five months, but then she wanted to go, and I let her, although she came back for several months. Always tame and would ride on my shoulder while I went around looking for something to feed her. That was Shirley. Possums are incredibly clean animals....someone said, "Ugh! They eat dead cows!!" I said, "So do I."
marilyn_c
7 years agoDawn, I would just tell his story....how I found him online and he was in a kill pen and due to ship in a couple of days, and wished I had him, and the next day got an unexpected call from our atty. that a long time insurance claim had finally settled. So I thought that was a sign that I get him. Paid for him and two days later, he was home. How I fed him and the vet appointments to get his feet x-rayed and special shoes. and I would finish up by telling them what a very special horse he is, and how he rides so well. And I would stress that many horses end up in kill pens through no fault of their own because their owners take them to auctions, and that is where kill buyers get most of them. I would probably conclude by saying any animal should be a life time commitment and not to be discarded so casually because they could very well end up in a kill pen and might not be so lucky as Val, to find a home. I would probably also quote the statistics of the thousands of horses that ship every month to slaughter. And I would probably say that since horses are livestock, they will always be slaughtered and it was wrong to send them out of the country where it can't be overseen and regulated. If slaughter is to continue, bring it back to the states. Not one horse was saved when slaughter was outlawed in the US. All it did was increase their suffering a hundred times over.
Did you see his recent picture? He is looking good. This was made last week.
Yayagal